The best thing was we had ZERO pregnant females.
Katie
Katie
The clinic I volunteer with spays all cats unless the head vet determines the cat is too far along (as in the cat will have them that day). Otherwise...given the fact that we are spaying/neutering unowned feral cats...they are spayed due to the difficulty in retrapping feral cats.We had two that were pregnant. One went home right away, the other already had all her vaccinations, and was knocked out. Since she was pretty far along, she got sent home with the owner.
At first, I was upset that female pregnant cats were fixed later in their pregnancy....but oftentimes, as stated before...you get one shot and sending a pregnant cat back outdoors not only means you will have to trap all the kittens later on..but also, if mom isn't spayed...she continues to reproduce. We've only turned 1 away this year and we've had several pregnant cats. It is sad...but given the sheer number and the goal to stabilize their population...better to end a life that hasn't begun then one that has already taken it's first breaths.Originally Posted by menagerie mama
That's great!
We do feral cat spay/neuter day at my clinic too, for a cat rescue group, at discounted prices, although we only do 20-25 cats. But, I know it all adds up! I feel bad about spaying a female that is really far along, and we usually won't, but I don't mind if it's early in the pregnancy. Lord knows we have enough cats around here right now!!!!
We sure do!!!Originally Posted by menagerie mama
Some of the cats we find aren't too feral, and we work with foster homes if the pregnancy is really far along, to keep the mom and babies until they're ready for adoption, instead of letting mom back outside. I agree that it would be difficult to trap all the kittens and mom again, I've done that and it's not fun! But if they're really far along we usually will be able to tell by feeling them and then decide. But, this obviously doesn't apply to all the cats, just the nice ones that we're able to evaluate!